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Sen. Kamala Harris says she's ready for the 'lies' and 'deception' in Trump campaign attacks as election season ramps up

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on police use of force and community relations on on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 in Washington. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

  • In an interview with theGrio Saturday, Sen. Kamala Harris of California said she expects that the Trump campaign will engage in "lies" and "deception" as election season ramps up — and that she is ready to face it.
  • "They're gonna engage in lies, they're gonna engage in deception, they're gonna attempt to distract from the real issues that are important to American people," Harris told theGrio's Natasha S. Alford.
  • The senator also addressed voter suppression during the interview, saying "the answer to those questions about why [it exists] is because they know when we vote, things change."
  • Last week, President Donald Trump has amplified a false "birther" lie that Harris isn't eligible to run. Harris was born in California and is a natural-born American citizen. 
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Sen. Kamala Harris of California said she ready to face the Trump campaign's attacks against her, which she says are riddled with "lies" and "deception."

In a wide-ranging interview with theGrio Saturday, Harris, who was announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week, said she expects the Trump campaign will engage in "dirty tactics" as Election Day draws closer. 

"They're gonna engage in lies, they're gonna engage in deception, they're gonna attempt to distract from the real issues that are important to American people," Harris told theGrio's Natasha S. Alford. "And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics and this is gonna be a knockdown drag-out. And we're ready."

In his latest attacks against the Biden-Harris campaign, Trump used a "birther" lie that Harris might not be eligible to be Biden's vice president because she might not have been born in the US. Harris is a natural-born American citizen born in California to immigrant parents.

"I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," Trump told reporters on Thursday in reference to a Newsweek op-ed that questioned her eligibility. Newsweek later apologized for the op-ed, acknowledging that the rhetoric was "being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia."

During a press conference hosted at his golf resort on Saturday, Trump said he wasn't sure of the credence to the claim, but he will not be "pursuing" it.

He added: "I have not gone into it in great detail. If she's got a problem, you would've thought that she would've been vetted by Sleepy Joe." 

Trump made a similar "Birtherism" claim in the 2012 election cycle, accusing former President Barack Obama of being born outside the US and thus ineligible to run for president. Like Harris, Obama was eligible to run as an American citizen born in Hawaii and finished his two terms in office as the first Black president in 2016.

During the interview with theGrio, Harris went on to emphasize the importance of the upcoming election and addressed the problem of voter suppression, saying the issue lies in that "they know when we vote, things change."

"[Let's] also remember why they don't want us to vote," Harris said. "It is because that is a way to strip us of the power of our voices. And our voice in this election is so critically important. It is important for our babies. It is important for our grandparents."

Amid a contentious race that started off with more than a dozen Democratic candidates, Harris — who previously campaigned in the 2020 race — acknowledged that voters "may not fall in love with who you're voting for."

"But if you just look down on a piece of paper at the issues that are impacting you every day — whether you've got relatives who have been impacted by the COVID virus, you're unemployed or trying to get that extra [unemployment] check, or you look at who's going to pay attention to whether the Black community is going to have equal access to a vaccine when it's created — … there is so much on the line in this election," the senator said.

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